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18 June 2012, 10:29

Linus Torvalds abuses NVIDIA over Optimus support

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Linux creator Linus Torvalds publicly voiced his disappointment with graphics hardware manufacturer NVIDIA in a question and answer session that he attended at the Finnish Aalto University. When asked about support for NVIDIA's Optimus technology, which has been a problem under Linux for quite a while, Torvalds said "NVIDIA has been one of the worst trouble spots we've had with hardware manufacturers" and then proceeded to raise his middle finger to the camera and verbally abuse the company.

Torvalds was visiting Aalto University on the occasion of being honoured for receiving the Millennium Technology Prize, which he recently shared with Dr Shinya Yamanaka. The hour-long session included many insights into how Linux got started and how it developed as a project when its community grew. Torvalds pointed out several times that he himself never had any interest in the commercial development of the operating system and said he started programming it simply because he was used to writing his own tools for everything at the time.

When asked by an attendee on comments about NVIDIA refusing to support Optimus on Linux, Torvalds first said that he thought the company was an exception rather than the rule and that he found it sad that a company trying to sell "a lot of chips" in the Android ecosystem would behave that way. He then said he had no problem with publicly shaming the company, raised his middle finger to the camera and said "NVIDIA, fuck you". Torvalds is well known for speaking his mind and occasionally insulting people along the way. Previously, the OpenBSD community and users of the SVN version control system have found themselves on the receiving end of his barbs.


Linus Torvalds answering questions at Aalto University

For those interested only in Torvalds' response to the NVIDIA Optimus question, the relevant exchange takes place approximately 48 minutes into the video.

(fab)

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